Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday that Kyiv’s forces have recaptured more than 500 square kilometres of territory in the southern Kherson region since October 1. The retaken land includes nearly 30 towns and villages that Russian forces had occupied for months, a spokeswoman for Ukraine’s southern army command said. Read our live blog to see how all the day's events unfolded. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).
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2:30am: Biden warns risk of nuclear 'Armageddon' at highest level since 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis
Speaking at a fundraiser for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin was “not joking when he talks about the use of tactical nuclear weapons or biological or chemical weapons”.
Biden added, “We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis."
Biden also challenged Russian nuclear doctrine, warning that the use of a lower-yield tactical weapon could quickly spiral out of control into global destruction.
“I don’t think there is any such thing as the ability to easily use a tactical weapon and not end up with Armageddon,” Biden said.
US officials for months have warned of the prospect that Russia could use weapons of mass destruction in Ukraine as Moscow has faced a series of strategic setbacks on the battlefield. As recently as this week, though, they have said they have seen no change to Russia's nuclear forces that would require a change in the alert posture of US nuclear forces.
10:05pm: Ukraine has retaken more than 500 sq km of land since October 1: Zelensky
Ukrainian forces have recaptured more than 500 sq km (195 square miles) of territory and dozens of settlements in the southern Kherson region alone since October 1, said President Volodymyr Zelensky.
In a video address, he also said there had been more military successes in the east.
Earlier Thursday's Ukraine's southern army command spokeswoman Natalia Gumeniuk said the recaptured territory in the southern Kherson region was home to nearly 30 towns and villages that had been occupied by Russian forces for months.
7:51pm: Macron urges Erdogan to fight Russia-sanctions dodging
French President Emmanuel Macron has urged his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan to push back against attempts to dodge sanctions imposed on Russia over its war in Ukraine.
Macron "underlined the importance of the European sanctions regimes in stopping Russia's escalation, and called to fight any circumvention strategies", the French presidency said after talks on the sidelines of the inaugural European Political Community summit in Prague.
There have been concerns in Europe and the US that Turkey – which has not imposed sanctions on Moscow – is being used as a haven for those looking to avoid the Western measures.
Turkish trade with Russia has exploded during the war in Ukraine to the growing irritation of the US amid worries that Russian oligarchs and big businesses are using Turkish entities to evade sanctions.
7:35pm: Russia summons French ambassador over Ukraine arms supply: ministry
The Russian foreign ministry said it had summoned France's ambassador to Moscow, Pierre Levy, over the military support offered to Ukraine by his country and Kyiv's other Western allies.
"The Russian side pointed to the threats posed by the increased supply of weapons and equipment to the Kyiv regime, and by the scaling-up of training programmes for the Ukrainian military," by France and other Western countries, a foreign ministry statement said.
6:31pm: Rubble of destroyed Zaporizhzhia city apartment block ‘still smoldering’
Reporting from Zaporizhzhia city, where a Russian missile demolished an apartment block shortly after 5am local time, FRANCE 24’s Gulliver Cragg says rescue workers were still working on the site. “The rubble is still smoldering and the rescue workers are still trying to get into this rubble to see if they can pull anyone else out,” said Cragg.
6:05pm: Zaporizhzhia plant is a Ukrainian facility, says IAEA
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) head Rafael Grossi has affirmed that the UN nuclear watchdog considered the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to be a Ukrainian facility.
"This is a matter that has to do with international law...we want the war to stop immediately, and of course the position of the IAEA is that this facility is a Ukrainian facility," said Grossi.
This comes a day after President Vladimir Putin signed a decree designating the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe's largest, Russian "federal property'.
Speaking in Kyiv, where he met President Volodymyr Zelensky, Grossi said he discussed the “administrative consequences of the Russian annexation” with the Ukrainian leader.
1:05pm: OPEC+ lowered oil output target to help stabilise market, Kremlin says
OPEC+ oil producers agreed to lower their output target by 2 million barrels per day to help stabilise the market, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.
The Saudi Arabia-led OPEC+ cartel agreed the cut at a meeting in Vienna on Wednesday, ignoring pleas from the US to keep oil flowing.
"The OPEC and the OPEC+ format is the structure, which, repeatedly, has proved its reputation as a responsible organisation, which oversees the stability of global energy markets," Peskov said when asked about US criticism of the decision.
"That's why, of course, the decisions which were taken, they are just aimed at oil market stabilisation."
1:02pm: Swedish investigation of Nord Stream damages strengthens suspicion of 'gross sabotage'
A crime scene investigation of the damages on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines has strengthened the suspicions of "gross sabotage", said the Swedish Security Service on Thursday.
12:15pm: Kremlin rejects reports that 700,000 have fled Russia
The Kremlin on Thursday denied reports that 700,000 Russians have fled the country since Moscow announced a mobilisation drive that it said would call up hundreds of thousands to fight in Ukraine.
In a briefing with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he did not have exact figures for how many people had left the country since President Vladimir Putin's announcement of a "partial mobilisation" on September 21.
11:49am: Kazakhstan holds 'tough' talks with Russian ambassador
Kazakhstan's foreign ministry said Thursday it summoned Russia's ambassador to the Central Asian country for a "serious talk" following Moscow's demands to expel the country's Ukraine envoy.
Relations between Russia and Kazakhstan have been strained since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, with Astana seeking to balance ties with both the West and ally Moscow.
Kazakh leader Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has publicly disagreed with Russian President Vladimir Putin over Ukraine.
He also assured the safety of thousands of Russians fleeing to Kazakhstan after the announcement of Moscow's military call-up.
11:45am: Ukraine 2023 early grain harvest could drop by at least 50%, producer says
Ukraine's winter grain sowing area for the 2023 harvest will unlikely to exceed 2 million hectares and the harvest could fall by at least 50%, the head of a large Ukrainian agriculture company was quoted as saying on Thursday.
The pace of sowing winter wheat in Ukraine for the 2023 harvest is three times lower than last year, according to data provided by the agriculture ministry this week.
Farms have sown 1.1 million hectares of winter wheat as of Oct. 3, or 27% of the expected area, compared with 3.1 million hectares sown at the same date in 2021, the data showed.
"It is unlikely that we will gain 2 million hectares (of winter grain sowing area)," Alex Lissitsa, CEO of IMC integrated agricultural business, was quoted by Interfax Ukraine as saying.
"The harvest of early grains (mostly wheat and barley) will be 50-70% less (in 2023 versus 2022). In fact, we will cover our own needs, but not everything will be so rosy with exports," he added.
11:38am: 'Unthinkable' that Russia will be excluded from Nord Stream investigation, Moscow says
Russia's foreign ministry said on Thursday it was "unthinkable" that an investigation into ruptures on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines would proceed without Russia's participation.
Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the West was purposefully creating obstacles to the investigation and said the exclusion of Russia and Gazprom from the probe showed it had something to hide.
10:30am: 'Manoeuvring going on' in Putin's inner circle
"I'm hearing that there is already manoeuvring going on around [Vladimir Putin's] inner circle; we saw the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov slap down the Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov last week, when he suggested the use of tactic weapons and Peskov said 'let's not get too emotional"," said FRANCE 24 Russia correspondent Nick Holdsworth, speaking from London.
"There are reports also that Yevgeny Prigozhin, who's head of the Wagner mercenary group, is manoeuvring for more power – and there are some within the power circles who are not very happy about that," Holdsworth went on. "Just yesterday we saw this chairman of [the defence committee of] the Duma [...] saying 'we need to stop lying; the reports of the defence ministry don't change; people know; people aren't stupid; this can lead to a loss of credibility'. So you're getting these voices beginning to get louder and louder.
"And then we have Putin admitting to a group of teachers in a televised call that the situation will be stabilised, which begs the question of: 'If it needs to be stabilised, then what's going on there Mr Putin?' So it's not looking good for Putin – although other observers are saying that he's pretty well entrenched still [...] but certainly a further major defeat on the battlefield will be very very bad news for Vladimir Putin."
10:28am: Ukrainians 'continue to advance'
"Ukrainian forces have been continuing to advance; continuing the pattern we've seen over the past few days of rapidly advancing through territory in the east and northeast of the country, so in the regions of Kharkiv [...], Luhansk and Donetsk, and also retaking territory in the south on the Kherson front," FRANCE 24's Catherine Norris-Trent reported from Dnipro.
"So a lot of changes on the military map and a lot of buoyancy among the Ukrainians and Ukrainian forces, because they're managing to continue to gain ground as the Russians become encircled and then pulling rapidly in some places, leaving all their matériel behind; their tanks, their weapons, their clothes," Norris-Trent continued. "It just shows the speed with which they've been forced to retreat in some areas."
9:43am: Russian rockets slam into Zaporizhzhia near nuclear plant
Seven Russian rockets slammed into residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia before dawn Thursday, killing two people and trapping at least five in the city close to Europe's biggest nuclear power plant, the governor of the mostly Russian-occupied region said.
The strikes came just hours after Ukraine's president announced that the country's military had retaken three more villages in one of the regions illegally annexed by Russia.
Governor Oleksandr Starukh wrote on his Telegram channel that many people were rescued from the multi-story buildings, including a 3-year-old girl who was taken to a hospital for treatment.
Zaporizhzhia is one of four regions that Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed in violation of international laws on Wednesday, and is home to a nuclear plant that is under Russian occupation. The city of the same name remains under Ukrainian control.
The head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog is expected to visit Kyiv this week to discuss the situation at the Zaporizhzhia facility after Putin signed a decree Wednesday declaring that Russia was taking over the six-reactor plant. Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry called it a criminal act and said it considered Putin’s decree “null and void.” The state nuclear operator, Energoatom, said it would continue to operate the plant.
9:15am: US believes Ukrainians behind killing of Daria Dugina, New York Times reports
US intelligence agencies believe parts of the Ukrainian government approved a car bomb attack near Moscow in August that killed Darya Dugina, the daughter of a prominent Russian nationalist, the New York Times reported, citing unidentified officials.
The United States took no part in the attack on Dugina and was not aware of it ahead of time, the Times reported. American officials admonished Ukrainian officials over the assassination, the Times said.
After the attack, Ukraine denied involvement in the killing while Russia's Federal Security Service accused Ukraine's secret services of being behind it.
The New York Times quoted a Ukrainian presidential advisor, Mykhailo Podolyak, as repeating the denial that Kyiv was behind the attack.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and REUTERS)
